CANADIAN HOSPITALS MATERNITY POLICIES AND PRACTICES SURVEY: PROGRESS AND GAPS

The Public Health Agency of Canada and the Canadian Institute of Child Health (CICH) published this week the report of the Canadian Hospitals Maternity Policies and Practices Survey (CHMPPS), which was conducted by the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System’s Maternity Experiences Study Group co-led by CRCHUM researcher Janusz Kaczorowski. The overall objective,” notes Kaczorowski, “is to improve the provision of maternal and infant care in Canada.”

One of the most comprehensive of its kind, the survey was completed by 323 hospitals from across Canada in 2007. It covers a broad spectrum of routine maternity care practices in Canadian hospitals, including birth statistics, policy development, committee structure, health human resources, cultural considerations, educational undertakings and physical facilities. Practices and policies are also described for labour and birth, postpartum, infant feeding, neonatal intensive care/special care nursery, and families coping with grief and loss.

The CHMPPS findings can be used by professional groups, governments, consumers and other concerned organizations and individuals to review their own policies, standards, guidelines and services. The results reveal provincial and territorial variations and variations based on hospital size; and suggest the need for action on currently available maternity care policies and practices.

A number of maternity issues have been the subject of considerable discussion in Canada and elsewhere in recent years. These include the support and promotion of breastfeeding, the rising rate of caesarean birth, the availability of a trial of labour and vaginal birth after caesarean, routine use of episiotomies, and the use of continuous electronic fetal monitoring during normal labour. “The CHMPPS study illustrates the extent to which current policies and practices in Canadian maternity hospitals have evolved to support optimal care for Canadian women” notes Kaczorowski.

The report can be viewed at : 

http://www.publichealth.gc.ca/chmpps

Information:  

Richard Ashby
Associate Director, Information and Development
CHUM Research Centre
(514) 890-8000, ext. 14090
richard.ashby.chum@ssss.gouv.qc.ca